1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system and method for sharing information about a Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA) network.
2. Description of the Related Art
The DLNA is a non-profit collaborative trade organization, which is responsible for defining interoperability guidelines to enable sharing of digital media between consumer appliances such as Personal Computers (PCs), printers, cameras, cell phones, Set Top Boxes (STBs), TeleVisions (TVs), and other multimedia devices. Basically, the DLNA guidelines are used in order to achieve interoperability between appliances in a home network.
Generally, DLNA network appliances share content via a Wireless Fidelity (WiFi) Access Point (AP). The DLNA network appliances indicate appliances mounting DLNA middleware. The WiFi AP assigns an Internet Protocol (IP) address for each appliance based on Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP). The DLNA network appliances can communicate with one another through Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) protocol, and can share content with other appliances over the Internet.
Generally, after a terminal user searches an accessible WiFi AP, the terminal user can access a Digital Media Server (DMS) of a corresponding DLNA network via the searched WiFi AP. The DMS stores and provides content.
However, in a conventional system, the terminal user must be positioned within a radio radius of the WiFi AP in order to identify and access the DMS of the DLNA network. As a result, if the terminal user is positioned out of the radio radius of the WiFi AP, the terminal user cannot identify the WiFi AP, making it difficult to gain access to the DMS of the DLNA network.